One of the heaviest-hit areas was a commercial district
along a U.S. Highway 98 bypass in the town of Columbia in Marion
County, about 30 miles (48 km) west of Hattiesburg, state
emergency management spokesman Greg Flynn told Reuters.

One woman was killed in a shopping strip in Columbia, a
rural community of about 6,500 people, and another in a nearby
trailer home, according to county coroner Norma Williamson.

"It's chaos over here," she said of the aftermath of the
storm, which struck at about 2:30 p.m. (2030 GMT).

Images of the scene published on the website of Hattiesburg
television station WDAM showed mangled buildings, snapped trees,
debris-littered roads and overturned vehicles, including an
ambulance.

Two more storm-related fatalities were confirmed in Jones
County to the northeast, where a separate tornado touched down
an hour later, and both victims there were believed to have died
in their homes, county emergency management spokeswoman Tammy
Wells said.

Flynn said numerous people were hurt in both counties, some
seriously. He described property damage in Marion County as
"massive."

Governor Phil Bryant issued a state of emergency for Marion
and Jones counties, hastening the availability of state
resources needed for storm relief.

His office said the storms knocked out power to more than
7,000 customers.

The twisters were spawned by thunderstorms that originated
over south-central Louisiana, then tracked northeast before
barreling through southeastern Mississippi, said Corey Mead, a
meteorologist for the national Storm Prediction Center in
Norman, Oklahoma.

About 15 homes were damaged in southeastern Louisiana by a
storm that also knocked down trees and power lines across
Tangipahoa Parish and unleashed a tornado in the town of Amite,
though no injuries were reported, according to the office of
Governor Bobby Jindal.

Mead said intensity of storms diminished after they passed
through Mississippi, but dangerously high winds and additional
tornadoes were possible late Tuesday and early Wednesday across
parts of southern Alabama, northern Florida and southern
Georgia.

Flash flood warnings also were posted across the Florida
panhandle and parts of Georgia as a wave of heavy showers swept
in behind the storm front, Mead said.
(Reporting by Emily Le Coz in Jackson, Miss.; Additional
reporting and writing by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by
Eric Beech, Robert Birsel)